also read: Evron's JEWISH STATE OR ISRAELI NATION?
Sands is a scholar's scholar. I think any Arab or Palestinian who decides to take revenge on Israel and kill all the Jews should first spend a year at an Israeli university. There you find truly beautiful minds with giant hearts. There you find the real Jewish Ethic struggling with the Zionist Myth. There you find thinking, debating, talking and delving into complexity as you find nowhere else.
If you think we need another Holocaust to rid the world of Jews,then write down your reasons on a paper, put it in your pocket, and go to any Israeli university. There you will see that your reasons apply to no one there. You will see that Jewish intellect-- even Israeli intellect-- cannot be characterized in any generality as Jewish/Israeli intellect is always: SIX OF THE WORLD'S BEST MINDS ARGUING ENDLESSLY OVER SEVEN OPINIONS. So how could you have a reason to love them, to hate them, to be neutral towards them....IT IS AN ENDLESS ROLLERCOSTER RIDE!!!! Their intellect cannot be pinned down to this and that. All you can say is that Israelis/Jews are divers. They love to dive into the darkness of complexity and bring back to the light of understanding to the surface. Then, only then, ask yourself if you really want to destroy these monuments to human evolution.
Israel is not where you find perfection. But it is where you find endless contemplation. Israelis are *SECRETLY* constantly searching their souls asking: WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? They have been over-propagandized with the HOLOCAUST and think it is an INEVITABLE fate, like a Sword of Damocles, hanging over their heads. They are scared that 1) Diaspora Jews will abandon them; b) that their past lack of mensch-hood will come to haunt them and cause them to become victims again and; 3) that everyone hates them because they think they are miserable people. Well, my father was just like an Israeli Jew. That is because he is an East European. We are not very easy to take. Me, I'm far more traveled than my dad and never felt compelled to prove myself to others or to compete in order to survive. But East Euros are all like that. I'm more like my mom-- East Euro women are wonderful, like Asian women. They are everything the men are not. Well, Sands, like Boas Evron, is trying to tell you that, when you strip the Zionist myths of some sort of blood line identity, what you've got is the best of Eastern Europe because the Jews who "came back to the Holy Land" are really East Euros from a long line of converts. You see, Judaism spread north far, far faster than it could through reproduction and migration. Like Christianity, it was Middle Eastern monotheist mysticism that got right to the heart of East Euros.
Unfortunately, Israel is really East Euros who rightly despised how they were treated by their fellow East Euros so they moved to Palestine and there are treating the Arabs exactly as they were treated. Hey, no one is perfect!
These two books-- Evron and Sands-- are hard to read. Afterall, guys who learn European languages think like European in complex sentences. None of the American type: "Jack and Jill went up the hill. Jack turned to Jill. Jill said "what?" Jack jumped her bones. Jill loved it...." No, it's more like: "Jack, step by step, Jill's right hand in his left--eyes fixed on her small (nevertheless succulent cleavage"-- and those ankles...Lord God, how did you think of making such ankles...so gracefully walking up the hill-- made love fire up his brain and desire burn in his loins....." Get what I mean?
But don't be put off by that, nor by the small print. When you read them both, you are left wondering: my God, from afar Israelis all seem like Zionazis. Yet, there they go, producing such deep introspection. Everyone of these books that you would imagine would produce a scandal about Zionism and surely would be suppressed by American Zionists, labeling them "anti-Semitic," in fact, are common fare in Israel and create quite a discussion. Why? Because Israelis are the sabra children of East Euro's best intellectuals. Sabra is a prickly plant and that they are indeed, but they are the BEST minds of a Europe that may have been primitive and wild but, nevertheless, regarded its intellectuals as gifts from God. It is unfortunate that they so mistreated their Jews. But you see, East Euros ALWAYS HURT THE ONE THEY LOVE and live the rest of their lives in tragedy. I'd say the main problem is that we're kind of paranoid and, therefore, extremely jealous. Take Stalin, he came to love Jews as his mentors and teachers as he moved from the path of an Eastern Orthodox monk to that of a Communist revolutionary. But as soon as he saw Golda Meyer come to Moscow as Israel's ambassador and how Jews bowed to her in admiration as a rep from the world's first Jewish State, he got jealous and began the Doctors' Plot. Everything is a lot more complicated to be sure, but there's truth in what I say. Jews in East Europe are OF US so they are like us....That's why no one likes them as no one likes us: because we're perpetual drama queens. But go to Israel and see how--even the wrong headed and the hasbara liars-- they produce such marvelous thinking and have such kind hearts (though they have an inferiority complex, are paranoid and very jealous types) that you leave wondering: HOW THE HELL COULD ANYONE HATE THESE PEOPLE. Well, then read BLOODLANDS to see what a murderous place East Euro was through the 1930s and 40s. I can't believe that I'm still alive. Perhaps, the East Euro Israelis should intermarry with the Italian ones to soften their edges. But, be that as it may, these two books: Sands and Evron will make you understand and see what BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ISRAELIS ARE and what victims they are of insecurity, fearing betrayal by their kin in Diaspora-- that's what they think will bring about their Holocaust. Yet, when you get Israeli Jews and Arabs together, invariably you realize: Wow, these guys are family...it just clicks perfectly.
So read about Israeli Jews and Arabs and East Euro too and you'll see that, though a pain in the ass, they are well worth putting up with and trying to keep up with their genius because beneath it all is the best heart of mankind. I would love nothing more than to end my days as a goy olim making my aliyah to Israel where I'd be on their turf and nobody there would tell me: "you can't talk about that because if you question in any way Zionist exceptionalism, you're an anti-Semite. No way, in Israel you've got brilliant intellectuals who-- if they're not doing brilliant science-- are disemboweling all their myths subjecting them to philosophical inquiry.
In conclusion, what I'm saying is read anything an Israeli writes introspectively because you know it is profound, in no way self-sparing (even brutal) and will make you think, think, think. In America that's exactly what we need to do to avoid waking up one morning and realizing that we're nothing but a bunch of chimps who can only say: "SAVE ME JESUS!"
Reading Jewish self-criticism or inteospection is the best way to immunize yourself against anti-Semitsm and to see what a wonderful home for your mind is an Israeli cafe. As soon as Arabs realize that, there will be wonderful family gatherings between the two....all it takes is tweeking Israeli's East Euro craziness. Sands is a perfect example of mensch-hood with limitless intellectual courage. But the fine print and torturous Englsih syntax...oy!
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Real Estate Theft has taken place in palestine!
After reading this book, written from an honest, secular point of view, how does one justify the real estate theft that has taken place in Palestine?-Pastor Matt Furse (author of "Who is Israel?")
Top reviews from other countries
Gerald Watts
A must-read for understanding the ongoing conflict.
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Good and interesting book, well documented.
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